Daily Grind

          My ankle started acting up at work today, something it hasn't done since track last year. Luckily there was a bottle of Advil within reach, but I hope this is an isolated event. I took a nap for an hour at lunch, and had a strange dream in which I was talking to my ex-girlfriend's father about some of my old coworkers from camp. Billy left early, so I gladly switched the radio first to 101.5 WDST (a different rock channel that I always listened to as a kid) and then to 104.7 K104 (a Top 40 channel that plays the same things over and over, but it's good for a couple hours.) Unfortunately, the latter station sucks during the day due to about 7 commercials for every 2 songs.
          Other objects of pondering: the version of "Seasons of Love" with Stevie Wonder is far better than the one without. When I was in 11th grade, my friend Seth and I found an old book in the Tech rooms entitled Crafts For Retarded: Through Their Hands They Shall Learn. This led to a twenty minute ramble by our famously long-winded cross-country coach, Mr. Lombardo, about how the connotation of "retarded" has changed over the years. I also thought about quotes that I forgot to put in my blog, which can be found below. Lastly, how do we learn about radio stations? I know about the ones that I do because I listened to them as a child or my friends told me about them, but only once have I seen actual outreach (101.5 at the Garlic Festival.) How did my parents know about the stations they listen to? Dumb luck?
          Tonight was my third and last night of training at the Red Onion. Once again, business was very slow. I met the assistant manager, Jeff, who is a stickler about doing everything exactly right, but is a pretty nice guy. The most notable event of the night came when I was serving a table of seven people for some time, and abruptly recognized the guy at the head of the table. We'd been in a band together and gone to school together, and I hadn't recognized him thanks to his new mop of hair. There's no way he couldn't have recognized me, though. To give a bit of background, at his young age this guy has found some success in the Hudson Valley blues scene (he worked for Levon Helm for a while) and has fallen in with some semi-famous people. He thinks very highly of himself, and we've always gotten the impression that he wants to forget his roots and pretend he's from Woodstock. Eventually, I caught his eye and said hello, at which point he instantly knew me, as if he simply hadn't ignored me before. What a scumbag. After work, I hung out with Ian while he played Kingdom Hearts 2, bringing back a flood of memories. That was a great sequel. Except Atlantica, they ruined that part with the singing-based combat system....I mean, come on.
          Quotes of the day:
"Andy, you wild man." - Brittany
"'Station of Serenity'? How about 'Alliteration of Awesomeness'?" - me
"That same girl gave you $50 three times in a row for hitting a ball? Including those shitty 2-hit combos!" - me, watching Ian grind in KH2
"Hint to winning this fight: press triangle once in a while." - me
"The Keyblade disappeared! Guess that means I can't step one foot to the left!" - me
"Get ALL the orbs!" - me
"Orbs orbs orbs orbs orbs orbs" - me and Ian
"What do they do for kicks around here, play checkers?" - Ian
"Why does he always have that same stupid, grimdark expression on his face?" - me
"'Whatever you believe is right, it's wrong. And that's a big mistake.'? Does that make any sense at all?" - me, discussing KH2 dialogue
          Quotes lost to history:
"Yeah, like the whore I am. Did I say that?" - Alanna
"Are they flesh or plastic?" - Sean
"I just want to go down there with a shotgun and pump until my arm is sore." - Chef